Systems and methods herein generally relate to supplying marking material to printing devices and more particularly to devices and systems that resupply marking material.
Many different devices are used to supply marking material to printers. For example, inkjet printers often use ink cartridges that include liquid ink, printheads, and associated circuitry. Similarly, toner-based printing devices often use toner cartridges to supply powdered toner to the printing engine.
Conventional toner cartridges can include many components that increase the cost of the toner cartridge and make newly manufactured replacement toner cartridges relatively expensive. For example, toner cartridges can include augers, gears, photoreceptors, cleaning blades, development units, etc. Often these mechanical and electrical components have remaining useful life even after all of the toner has been consumed. Therefore, a thriving market exists related to refilling toner cartridges that are empty of toner, but otherwise still include useable printing components.
In view of this, users have been provided an option to return empty toner cartridges to organizations that will refill and refurbish the toner cartridge. Such organizations market “used” or “refilled” toner cartridges at a discount price relative to newly manufactured toner cartridges; however, even the price of used or refilled toner cartridges can be relatively high for certain situations. Also, the toner cartridges can be somewhat bulky, increasing the shipping costs for the user or the refilling organization. The size of the toner cartridges also creates an issue with respect to storage space, which encourages retailers and users to only maintain a very limited supply of unused toner cartridges.
In addition, home refill kits are sometimes available to allow users to refill toner cartridges with additional toner; however, such kits require the unskilled user to remove the toner cartridge from the printer, sometimes partially dismantle the toner cartridge, utilize injection devices to resupply the toner into the empty toner cartridge, etc. Therefore, such kits can be very cumbersome to use and messy. Refill kits are unattractive to many users because of the complexity of the refill procedure and the time required to refill the cartridge. Also, print toner is a strong marking material that can permanently stain items, and even if a small amount of toner spills during user toner cartridge refill, items can be undesirably marred with the toner powder.